Smartphones blur overtime lines

FILE- In this Wednesday, May 30, 2012, file photo, three people on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange display their Blackberry smartphones. Struggling BlackBerry maker Research In Motion says Wednesday, June 20, 2012, it has started laying off employees as part of a restructuring plan aimed at saving about $1 billion this year.

ATLANTA — Those smartphones and BlackBerrys that enable work anytime, anywhere increasingly are blurring the lines between work life and personal life — and introducing the sticky issue of when overtime is owed to workers.

The always-connected worker and the pressures of the uncertain economy have led many to believe they should always be working because they can, thanks to the growing use of smartphones. That's allowing work to bleed into evenings, weekends and even sleep, with some people taking their phones and BlackBerrys to bed with them.

And the situation becomes tricky for hourly employees, who qualify for overtime.

“We've gotten into a place in our culture where the more you work, the better it is, and the more you should be proud of it,” attorney Amanda Farahany said. “And so people don't want to assert their overtime right.”

Overtime laws are abused by companies “on a daily basis,” she said.

But in some cases, that has led to lawsuits, seeking pay for what is sometimes called “BlackBerry overtime” or “electronic overtime.”

For employers, “that's an area of exposure and it's coming like a freight train,” said Greenberg Traurig attorney David Long-Daniels. By giving hourly employees BlackBerrys or access through iConnect or Citrix, “you've implicitly told them to work,” he said.

Long-Daniels advises companies not to allow hourly employees and others who qualify for overtime to use BlackBerrys or remote access to their work computers, unless they're told to record time when using the devices and the company has a system in place to record the hours.

Coca-Cola Co. says its nonexempt or hourly employees “are to be paid for all time worked,” including time spent working on laptops or BlackBerrys outside of regular work hours. Those in hourly positions must get approval from managers before working outside of regular business hours, according to Coca-Cola spokeswoman Amanda Rosseter.

The company has broadened the use of company-owned mobile devices to allow more flexible working schedules and other benefits, according to Rosseter. Company policies advise employees “to use good judgment” when considering whether to contact colleagues outside of working hours, she added.

Among the lawsuits over electronic overtime is one filed last year in U.S. District Court in Atlanta against Amerisave Mortgage Corp. by former employees. In the case, which has been granted conditional class-action status, senior mortgage processors claim they routinely worked more than 40 hours a week without getting overtime, and that Amerisave was aware employees used their phones and other devices to answer calls and email but did not track the time. Amerisave disputes those allegations. The discovery period just ended in that case.

Jason Zulauf and his brother, Jeffrey Zulauf, who are among the workers suing Amerisave, said they worked on commission and didn't realize they could qualify for overtime.

Jason Zulauf said the computer system Amerisave employees used to work from home would automatically clock them out after 40 hours, but they were told by managers to “back down” their hours, or adjust them downward, so they could work more hours to make more commission.

An attorney representing Amerisave, Jeff Mokotoff, said the company has “clear, unequivocal written policies that require the employees to record all the time that they work.”

The Zulaufs said they worked as many as 15 to 16 hours a day, six days a week. “We had no life,” Jason Zulauf said. “It took a lot of time away from our families.”

Farahany, who is the Zulaufs' attorney, said that “most people don't realize the rights they have under the overtime laws.”